A living person can donate one kidney, a segment of the liver, a lobe of a lung, a portion of the pancreas, or a portion of the intestine. The kidney is by far the most common, but living donors can also give several types of tissue, including bone marrow, skin, and blood products. Here’s what each donation involves and what the experience looks like.
Kidney: The Most Common Living Donation
Most living donors give one of their two kidneys. Your body can function well with a single kidney, which is why this donation is feasible. Transplant centers will screen you for conditions that would make donation risky, including uncontrolled high blood pressure, diabetes, and cancer. Smokers are typically asked to quit before being approved.
Kidneys from living donors consistently outperform those from deceased donors. One-year graft survival for living donor kidneys is 98%, compared to 96% for deceased donor kidneys. At five years, the gap widens: 92% versus 86%. For recipients, this can mean years of additional function from the transplanted organ.
Most kidney removals are now done laparoscopically, through small incisions. Recovery data from a study of 646 donors found that 35% returned to normal activities within two weeks, and 79% were back by four weeks. The median time to return to work was five weeks, though 24% of donors needed more than six weeks, particularly those in manual labor or skilled trades. Women, donors with longer hospital stays, and those who experienced a postoperative complication also reported longer recovery times.
Liver: The Organ That Regrows
Living liver donation is less common but uniquely possible because the liver regenerates. Surgeons remove a segment, sometimes more than half of the organ, leaving the donor with roughly 35% to 45% of their original liver volume. Both the donor’s remaining portion and the transplanted segment then grow back.
Regeneration happens fast at first. In the first month after surgery, donors regain liver tissue at a rate of about 14.5 grams per day. After that initial burst, regrowth slows considerably. By one year, the donor’s liver volume typically reaches around 75% of its original size, which is more than enough for normal function. The recipient’s segment grows as well, eventually reaching a functional size.
Liver donation surgery is more complex than kidney donation, and recovery takes longer. Hospital stays are generally several days, and full recovery can take two to three months.
Lung, Pancreas, and Intestine
These donations are rare and performed only in specialized centers. A living lung donor gives one lobe (your lungs have five lobes total). In some cases, two donors each contribute a lobe so the recipient receives two. This is most often done for patients who are too sick to wait for a deceased donor organ.
A portion of the pancreas can be donated, and in some cases, donors give islet cells instead. Islet cells are the specific cells inside the pancreas that produce insulin, and transplanting them can help people with severe, hard-to-manage diabetes.
Living intestine donation involves removing a portion of the small bowel. Like lung donation, this procedure is uncommon and typically reserved for situations where a deceased donor organ isn’t available in time.
Tissues You Can Donate While Alive
Beyond whole or partial organs, living people can donate several types of tissue:
- Bone marrow and stem cells from blood, used to treat blood cancers and immune disorders
- Skin removed during surgeries like tummy tucks
- Bone removed during knee or hip replacements
- Umbilical cord blood collected after childbirth
- Amnion (the membrane surrounding a baby), also donated after childbirth
- Blood, platelets, and white blood cells
These tissue donations carry far less risk than organ donation and often come from material that would otherwise be discarded after a medical procedure.
The Evaluation Process
Every potential living organ donor goes through medical and psychological screening. The medical evaluation checks that your body can safely handle surgery and function well afterward with the remaining organ tissue. Each transplant center sets its own specific requirements, so being turned down at one center doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t donate at another.
The psychological evaluation exists to confirm that you understand the risks, that your decision is voluntary, and that nobody is pressuring you to donate. This is especially thorough when the donor has little or no preexisting relationship with the recipient, since transplant teams want to rule out coercion or financial motivation. You’ll typically meet with a social worker or mental health professional as part of this process, and a separate donor advocate represents your interests throughout.
How Donor Costs Are Covered
The recipient’s insurance typically pays for the donor’s surgery and medical care related to the donation. However, there are indirect costs that insurance doesn’t always cover: lost wages during recovery, travel to the transplant center, and childcare or eldercare while you’re healing.
HRSA’s Living Organ Donation Reimbursement Program helps fill those gaps. It reimburses qualified living donors for travel, lost wages, childcare, eldercare, and other expenses related to the evaluation, surgery, and follow-up visits. Between 2007 and 2024, the program received more than 18,000 applications and approved nearly 89% of them. It’s specifically designed for donors who would want to give but face financial barriers. The program is run through the National Living Donor Assistance Center, where you can check eligibility and apply.